According to the search giant Google, 20% of all searches are related to location. This means nearly 3 billion Google search queries contain local terms each month, as shown in these examples: “Dentists in Tacoma WA”, “Alabama dentists” or “dentists 60982.”

If businesses are not optimizing for local search terms, they may be missing out on the vast majority of their possible traffic. Only about 15% of small businesses, or around nearly 2 million, have claimed their Google Place Page. These pages are viewed millions of times a day. Google also contends that 73% of activity online is in some way “related to local content.”

The following statistics reveal trends and opportunities for Local Brick and Mortar Businesses.

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Locating Local Shops via the Internet

97% of Internet users in the U.S. gather shopping information online, but 51% of those consumers “Shop Online” than “Purchase Offline.” Additionally, every dollar consumers spend online, five or six dollars will be spent on offline purchases that were influenced by online research.

70% of online searchers now use the Internet to shop locally for products and services, or will use local search to find local offline businesses.

54% of search use Internet search instead of the phone book, and the Internet is expected to soon surpass newspapers as a local shopping information resource.

90% of smartphone users look up local information, and 87% of these users subsequently call the business, visit the website or store, make a purchase or get directions to the business. 17% of mobile phone usage is attributed to looking for a store address.

A business’s address should be on every page of a company’s website in text format so it can be read by search engines. Bouncing off data from the infographic below, 49% of smartphone owners use their device WHILE shopping in brick-and-mortar stores, so they are poised to take advantage of vicinity based notifications and promotional offers.

Any business can benefit from site optimization features to amplify the number of visitors to their site. SEO Experts at Dev8 specialize in local, nationwide and global wide searches to deliver both consumer traffic and conversion rates. Higher revenue starts at local marketing, so visit https://www.dev8.net/ to take advantage of search engine enhancements and jump-start your traffic today!